Leadership 2015 – What a Great Time!

I’m baaaack!! Stampin’ Up!’s Orlando Leadership conference was terrific! Not just all the great business information, the techniques and tools, the great stage demonstrations – but meeting in person all of the wonderful demonstrators who have been ‘virtual’ friends for the last few years! I got to know these great people mainly through the demonstrator only website called Stampin’ Connection, that’s offered by Stampin’ Up!, and also from the SUDSOL forum that I belong to, and from following other demonstrator’s blogs and/or Facebook pages (no, I’m not one of those weird kind of stalkers! I’m a good kind!! LOL)

Another wonderful part of a gathering of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators is of course the amazing creativity that surrounds you! Of course, we love to share what we do, so that’s what we do – we make cards & projects, and swap them!

I participated in 3 ‘organized’ swaps; that’s where everyone signs up ahead of time, so we know how many cards/projects we need to make. I did 2 card swaps, and a swap using the Mini Gift Bag die.

The 1st swap was on Thursday night; we all gathered at Marlowe’s Tavern (there were 16 of us) for a fabulous dinner, lots of laughs, and of course terrific card sharing. This is the card that I made to swap:

I just love the Butterfly Basics bundle! (say that 3 times fast 🙂 ) For this card, I stamped the fern in Pear Pizzazz times – 1st time full strength, then the other 2 times without adding any more ink on the stamp (‘stamping off’ technique) on Very Vanilla card stock. The borders and sentiment were stamped in Blackberry Bliss. I layered this stamped panel on top of a panel of Blackberry Bliss card stock, and attached that to a card base of Very Vanilla card stock. Using the Butterfly Thinlits Dies, I cut the largest butterfly from Brushed Gold card stock. I stamped the medium butterfly in Blackberry Bliss ink onto Vellum card stock, and used the thinlit die to cut it out, and layered it onto the large butterfly with a Stampin’ Dimensional. I attached the butterflies to the card with another Dimensional, and added 3 Basic Pearl embellishments in the body of the butterfly to complete the card.

The 2nd swap I participated in, held at lunchtime on Friday, was with a group of demos belonging to the SUDSOL group. It was the Mini Treat Bag swap; we were to use the Thinlit die to create a treat bag, and embellish it any way we want – and of course put a treat inside! Now, knowing that all stampers seem to love chocolate (really, who doesn’t?!), I wanted to put a special treat in my bag. See, I also know that most of the swappers would be from the U.S., and in the U.S. they don’t have the same kind of Smarties that we have in Canada – the GOOD (read chocolate) kind! So I decided to make an extended sized bag, so that I could fit a box of Smarties and a Kit-Kat bar in each bag 🙂

This Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Die is SUPER EASY to use, and extending it is a snap! (I’ll share a tutorial on how to do that later this week). You can see how deep the bag is; lots of room for 2 treats, plus a pretty tag – here’s what it looked like:

For the Treat Bag, I used the 2013-2015 In Colours Paper Stacks in Crisp Cantaloupe. The piece at the bottom of the tag is a piece of scrap left after cutting the bag! No DSP goes to waste! 🙂 All of the embellishments on the bag, except for the Baker’s Twine, are included in this dies set – that’s how awesome it is! The border of stars was cut using Bermuda Bay card stock, layered on top of a strip of Silver Glimmer card stock. I cut the large star from Silver Glimmer Paper, and used the cut out smaller stars to decorate both the bag and the tag (remember what I said about no wasting?!) Both the ‘for you’ and the ‘enjoy’ are also included in this die set – let me tell you, I am going to get A LOT of use from this incredible set!

I didn’t have any Crisp Cantaloupe ribbon, so I used the Crisp Cantaloupe marker to colour the centre of the 5/8″ Organza Ribbon – voila! I tied it off with a piece of the same Coastal Cabana Thick Baker’s Twine that I used to wrap around the bag; I also added a piece of Crisp Cantaloupe Thick Baker’s Twine to the bag. To decorate the tag, I stamped the medium ‘swipe’ from the Work of Art stamp set in Crisp Cantaloupe classic ink, and did the smaller ‘splatters’ in Bermuda Bay ink. Adding a Coastal Cabana sequin from the 2013-2015 In Colour Sequin Assortment finished off the tag, and it was all ready for giving 🙂

After the treat bag swap, I then joined up with another SUDSOL group to do a card swap. It was a biggie – 31 people in my group, and there was a second group with another 30 people! We do love our swaps 🙂 This is the card I made for sharing:

This Sheltering Tree stamp set is so versatile – the most difficult part was deciding which parts of the set I wanted to use! As a lot of people are getting rather tired of winter, I decided to go with a spring theme. I created my card base on Baked Brown Sugar card stock, stamped with the Hardwood background stamp in Baked Brown Sugar ink. The image and sentiment were stamped onto Whispering White card stock. The beauty of this set in photopolymer is that it is so very easy to later the leaves over the tree trunk, and the flowers on top of the stems – without using a Stamp-a-ma-jig! I used Pear Pizzazz and Old Olive inks for the grass; the tree trunk was stamped in Baked Brown Sugar, and the leaves & sentiment were stamped in Old Olive ink. For the flower stems, I went with Mossy Meadow ink, and the flowers were stamped in Daffodil Delight and Strawberry Slush. I lightly sponged Soft Sky ink behind the tree to create a sky, and used the sun image from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set.

I layered the stamped pieces onto Old Olive card stock, and attached them to the card base. A few sequins to brighten the tree, and the card was finished.

Tomorrow I’d like to share with you the fabulous swap cards & treat bags that I received – it’s a lot, but they’re definitely worth seeing! I hope you’ll come back and have a look – you won’t regret it 🙂

If you would like to be a part of the Stampin’ Up! family, and a part of my team, to have the opportunity to share what you love to do with like-minded people, I hope you’ll join us! For more details on the terrific extras you get for signing up during Sale-a-bration, you can go direct to my sign-up siteHERE – read the information, the click ‘Join Now’ to start your new adventure. Of course, please contact me at debsmart@shaw.ca or 604.298.0472 if you have any questions.

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I've always liked to create things, but I'm not a great artist, or sculptor, or any type of 'traditional' artist - but I love to stamp and create! I love the satisfaction of a completed project; whether a 3D item, or a card, or scrapbook page - as long as it can create a smile, evoke a feeling, or some type of reaction in the recipient. I hope you will enjoy sharing my creations, and occasional ramblings; I'd enjoy having you stamp and create with me! :) If you're in Canada, you can Join My Team as a SU! demonstrator. If you're in the Great Vancouver area, you're welcome to join my classes - we always have fun!